A high school in Georgia is feeling reunited and empowered after a marketing project centered on common community message.
LaGrange High School students participated in a lip dub video, mouthing the words to songs for the purpose of defying cliques, differences and stereotypes.
“It was a unique project for our marketing students to have a performance task,” marketing teacher Dana Davis said.
"How can we promote school pride? How can we promote an anti-bullying message? Those were the questions students brainstormed about before coming up with the video idea," Davis said.
Marketing students, approximately 80 in total, orchestrated the event and project. They got the school’s extracurricular groups on board.
Students from all grades and social groups, as well as the extracurricular activities groups, appeared in the video.
The school planned a pep rally for the end of the day, as a finale for the video and to celebrate the school's upcoming spring sports, as well as successful seasons for the school’s football and basketball teams.
“Our core message was we are all one,” Davis said. “We are proud of our school and there’s a place for everyone there,” Davis said. “We all have differences but we’re all one big family. We have to respect everybody’s differences. That was the main thing.”
Davis said she talked to two students who said they were in a great mood at the end of the day.
“We had a whole great weekend because we left school feeling happy,” Davis said.
Davis and a college intern from an outside agency worked to edit the video.
A week later, on Monday, all the school’s teachers showed the final product to their classes.
"We're going to put it on our website," Davis said. She said students and teachers have also been sharing the video with alumni.
The video includes hits like Taylor Swift’s "Shake It Off", OutKast’s "Hey Ya", Miley Cyrus’ "We Won’t Stop", Bruno Mars’ "Uptown Funk", "Megan Trainor’s "All About That Bass", Lil Mama's "Lipgloss" and more.
“We spent a couple days listening to songs in the classroom,” Davis said. “I told them learning isn’t always about what’s in the textbook. It’s about real life.”
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